October 23, 2025 By CDHD Stranahan grant expands positive behavior supports The Idaho CDHD was recently awarded a Stranahan Foundation Early Childhood Education grant to expand existing activities with the Idaho Positive Beginnings Collaborative. With an award of $300,000 over three years, this new grant will fund Expanding Horizons: Integrating Home-Based Child Care and Kindergarten into the Idaho Positive Beginnings Collaborative. This Early Childhood Education grant supports organizations and projects that advance knowledge, skills or practices in the early childhood workforce. This includes expansions or modifications to proven professional development models with evidence of positive outcomes for early childhood professionals, classrooms and learning. The Idaho Positive Beginnings Collaborative was a perfect fit. Our Collaborative implements the Early Childhood Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports in early childhood settings across Idaho. Program participation is voluntary and focuses on a framework of evidence-based practices for promoting positive social and behavior development. This new funding supports essential updates to the current program by expanding participation to home-based child care and kindergarten classrooms. It will also support staffing additions to ensure a sustainable structure. This includes development of a coaching network for new and existing programs in need of support and a staff member to coordinate Program Leadership Team meetings for new home-based child care and kindergarten programs. Work is already underway to successfully enroll at least 10 programs in the Idaho Positive Beginnings Collaborative by August 2026. Ongoing analysis will help to ensure that programs are successfully implementing the Model and finding value in its practices. This will help to inform and improve future professional development offerings for continued engagement from home-based child care and kindergarten programs. Once the grant is complete, ongoing support will be undertaken by IdahoSTARS (for home-based child care) and Idaho SESTA (for kindergarten classrooms). Visit the Idaho Positive Beginnings Collaborative website for more information about this program.